Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 191

District of Shortland Quarter ending Jul - Sep

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
495	23 June 1874	Thomas Henry Banlis Mary Josephine Barron	Thomas Henry Baylis Mary Josephine Barron 💍 1874/10831	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	35 22	Thames Thames	3 months 5 years	R. C. Church Thames	1690		9 July 1874	Rev. Thos. A Lonergan
499	7 July 1874	Francis John Morton Uigdale Walmsley Catherine Mary Ansell	Francis John Martin Dugdale Walmsley Katharine Mary Ansell 💍 1874/11035	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Manager	31 22	Thames Auckland	6 months 8 years	The dwelling house occupied by William Ansell Grafton Road Auckland	Auckland	see Auckland	7 July 1874	Revd. David Bruce
500	8 July 1874	Henry Wood Elizabeth Casey	Henry Wood Elizabeth Casey 💍 1874/10828	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	30 22	Waiotahi Hape	6 years 4 years	R. C. Church St Francis Thames	74/1689		9 July 1874	Rev. Thos. Lonergan
501	29 July 1874	Robert Batten Emma Amelia Brown	Robert Batlen Emma Amelia Brown 💍 1874/13417	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	32 21	Thames Thames	6 years 6 years	The dwelling house occupied by John Coldient Baillie Street, Thames	2580		12 August 1874	Revd. James Hill
502	29 July 1874	Thomas McLean Sarah Goldicutt	Thomas McLean Sarah Coldicutt 💍 1874/13420	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic	32 22	Punga Flat Punga Flat	4 years 4 years	The dwelling house occupied by John Coldient Baillie Street Thames	2581		12 August 1874	Revd. James Hill
503	4 August 1874	Edward Lymplon Helen Hollow	Edward Simpson Helen Hollow 💍 1874/13702	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic	28 21	Thames Thames	6 years 6 years	The dwelling house occupied by Rev James Hill Karaka	2679		4 August 1874	Revd. James Hill
504	8 August 1874	William Herriden Ester Ensor	William Henry Kendall Betsy Ensor 💍 1874/12001	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 18	Thames Thames	3 years 6 years	St George's Church Thames	2695		9 August 1874	Revd. G. Lush
505	13 August 1874	Thomas William Kemp Lucy Martin Harris	Thomas Willm Kitt Lucy Martin Nimmis 💍 1874/9850	Bachelor Spinster	Distiller	24 17	Auckland Thames	1 year 5 years	The dwelling house occupied by James Harris Pollen Street, Thames	1354 Auckland	James Harris The Father	12 August 1874	Revd. John Douning

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).